Icarus Shawl

Purchase the pdf file now through Ravelry (you don’t have to be a Ravelry member to purchase) | add to cart | show cart

This shawl was inspired by a lace motif in Sophia Caulfeild’s Dictionary of Needlework, first published in 1882. The top-down construction allows the design to flow downward, giving the feeling of feathers dripping from a stick frame, just as in Greek mythology, Icarus’ feathers melted from their frame as he came too close to the sun.

Gauge: 21 stitches and 38 rows per 4 inches (10 cm) square in stockinette after blockingFinished Measurements: 72 inches (183 cm) across the top, and 36 inches (91.5 cm) from neck to point.Yarn Requirements: 1200 yards of laceweight yarn. Sample in Jaggerspun Zephyr Laceweight in ‘Pewter’Needle Size: 3.25mm (US 3) 24 inch circular needle or size needed to obtain gauge.Pattern Includes: charts and text translations of chartsStitches Used: knit, purl, k2tog, p2tog, sl1 k2tog psso, yo, ssk, yo4, knit front and back.Other Details: This shawl is worked from the neck down, using yarn overs on each end of each right side row to shape the “wings” and paired yarn overs in the center of each right side row (separated by a center stitch) to shape the point down the spine. These 4 increased stitches are added every right side row (excluding the edging rows), making each row successively longer than the last, so that what started with 5 stitches cast on, ends with hundreds.

This pattern was originally published in Interweave Knits, Summer 2006 issue and can be purchased with the digital back issues from that year from Interweave’s webstore. Also, it was republished in The Best of Interweave Knits, and is featured on the cover of that book.

Purchase the pdf file now through Ravelry (you don’t have to be a Ravelry member to purchase) | add to cart | show cart